Todd Lyden

I want to tell you a story, but I am going to show you the result first. You can see on my largely shorn and large cranium in the picture toward the back left is an indentation. That little dark line that's about an inch long. The story is from a late 70's winter in Northwestern Pennsylvania where I spent my grade school years. One winter, as the kids in the neighborhood did, I went out to play across the field to play next door in the snow. It was typically cold and snowy as you would expect. Like feet deep. Not the wimpy precipitation of eastern North Carolina (which is exactly why I live here and not there). My mother bundled me like that little kid in "A Christmas Story." I had the snowsuit on. Multiple layers of socks. Gloves, a toboggan. I began to step out into the cold from our back porch where there was an old screen storm door. As I opened the door and stepped out, a GIGANTIC icicle came down and landed smack on my head. Now I was pulled int...

I hate being a nitpick. But you Linkedin users who are using your business email to signup and use the platform might be in for a rude awakening. You DO NOT OWN that email. You WILL LEAVE that position someday. And when it happens, man... I'll let Andrew Brandt explain it much better than I , but how hard is it to just use your personal email?

I like to think that most people think of me as a pretty happy person. I am, for the most part. I went through some 360 Leadership training earlier this year and did some goal orienting and yada yada yada. Anyhoo, the end result was some good introspection. One thing that occurred in the outside looking in was that I actually have a lot to be happy about and gratitude is something to be shared and enjoyed. Not to be bragging, not to be a show-off, just to say "I'm happy, and thankful." Did you know that they can tell if you are depressed by analyzing your Facebook? https://www.wired.com/story/your-facebook-posts-can-reveal-if-youre-depressed/ So, I saw something call the 100DaysofHappy and of course there are 365daychallenges, you name it. I decided to challenge myself to share at least one thing every day that makes me happy. I'd LOVE to know what makes you happy too. Use the hashtag #365daysofhappyfortodd (seriously, no one is using it). Shar...

I've got this crazy idea. I think Marvel left the playing field open in the post "Avengers:Endgame" landscape for a new super-team. Back in the pre-Netflix days, there was a super team called "The Defenders." It's not much of a spoiler to disclose that Dr. Strange has come out intact after Endgame (they've announced a sequel movie). So right out of the gate you have the first member of this team up as you can tell from the comic cover. The second member, who always has trouble being in Marvel films due to rights issues with Universal is Mark Ruffalo's Hulk. He is a little different after the movie, but still available and would be a fantastic addition. The odd-man out in the cover is Namor the Submariner. Marvel has claimed that they wanted to make a version of this for years, but it was buried in the Fox deal because he was always lumped in with the Fantastic Four. I have never liked the idea and now that DC has their Aquaman...

I have not done a movie review post since 2016, but I thought I would take a look back at 2018 and see how I did with the US movie box office. I posted in order the movies by US take and was amazed how many I did not bother or haven't seen as of yet.  1              Black Panther -    while we shouldn't be surprised considering the pedigree and the resources behind this picture, it is still remarkable how successful this movie is on virtually every level. Yes, it does have some shoddy CGI towards the end and the finale battle doesn't quite work or feel quite right, but otherwise as the recent Oscars bear out- the individual parts all worked in such concert it is amazing to think that this was only the third feature from the director.    2              Avengers: Infinity War - a multi-year exercise over different franchises and...

via GIPHY I can't believe I'm finally writing this but why not? Hillary is so tone-deaf to how she lost, I don't need to read her book to understand how Trump was able to beat her with or without Russian assistance. Let's just look at the county where I work which is quintessential rural North Carolina and increasingly representative of rural America. At the end of the post, you will find the results of the last six elections going back to 2000. EXCEPT for Bush's re-election year in 2004 (which you will notice was VERY close), the DEMOCRAT has carried the county by at least a "clear majority." UNTIL this past election. That's right. A county that clearly went for Gore in 2000, Obama TWICE (with even an increase in votes for his re-election), CLEARLY rejected Hillary Clinton. Now before you turn this into a Clinton thing. Be clear: Bill Clinton CLOBBERED Bush in 1992 in Bladen with 55% of the vote and then repeated that statistic against D...

Seriously, there are times when I wish I weren't so jaded about the state of what happens on the internet. Here are the results when you run that sentence through Google:  https://www.google.com/search?q=I+wish+I+weren%27t+so+jaded+about+the+state+of+what+happens+on+the+internet.&oq=I+wish+I+weren%27t+so+jaded+about+the+state+of+what+happens+on+the+internet I ran that same sentence through several FREE online plagiarism detectors. Thankfully, Quetext did not find a copy. Searchenginereports was 100% clean. Even NoPlag.com came back ok. Why do I ramble about this? Because I have found yet one more example of "re-worded" plagiarism of one "business consultant" of another's work.  I won't tell you where I found these examples, but based on the dates of the sites, this paragraph came out first in 2015:  "The definition of success is a very personal one. It’s unique to each individual and only they can know if they’ve reached it. Unfort...